Femme Fatale
by Cyberwolf
Summary: Tenten puts Neji through exquisite torture. Best of all, she doesn't even know she's doing it. ...or does she?
1. Ice Cream

_**Ice-Cream  
**_

**Wildcatt **request. Humorous more than anything, I think. There's been a recent surge of interest in torturing...er, reminding Neji that he's still _a teenage male_, even if he IS a cool-headed shinobi and even if he DOES angst about Fate.

* * *

Konoha was in the middle of a heat-wave of unimaginable magnitude. It was the type of temperature that made the idea of a cold shower seem heavenly – if you could get the water cold, seeing as how it usually half-boiled in the pipes. It was the type of temperature that drove air-conditioner sales through the roof, and made people with air-conditioners very popular. It was the type of temperature that no one considered moving in, much less training. 

No one, that is, except Hyuuga Neji and Tenten.

Tenten collapsed backwards onto the grass, her breath coming in short quick gasps as she tried to recover from the heat-worsened exhaustion of the sparring match. The air felt like a thick wet blanket as she struggled to gulp it into her lungs. Her clothes were dark with sweat; she had decided to forego her newer, flowing blouses for the sleeveless and much more summer-weight tang-tops of her youth. It was a little too small for her now, requiring a couple of unfastened frogs and baring her midriff, but honestly in this hot, almost tropical weather every inch of uncovered skin was a blessing. She stared into the sky, trying to decide whether the strange wobbling of her vision was just heat-wavers or her being really close to blacking out.

"Are you tired already?"

Normally she would have denied any such allegations, and backed it up with several thrown weapons, but today she only nodded as she panted for breath.

Neji made a sound of contempt, but – Tenten couldn't help but notice – it was somewhat breathless, and he did seat himself (because you couldn't say Hyuuga Neji ever flopped, not if you wanted to live a pain-free life) beside her instead of continuing to train.

Tenten grinned to herself for a moment.

She blindly reached out a hand and fumbled for her pack, too tired to exert the effort of sitting up. Her brow creased in slight irritation as her hand failed to meet with the object of her desire, and she made a small, annoyed noise and sat up. She pulled her bag to herself and began to rifle through it with more thoroughness.

Neji watched her out of the corner of his eye. "What are you doing?" he asked her in a flat voice.

"Looking…looking for…found it!" Tenten crowed in triumph, withdrawing a slim metal thermos from her bag. She pressed her face against the cool metal, sighing in relief at the feel of it. Neji, now curious, was staring at her. Tenten removed the metal thermos, now fogged-up from the heat of her skin, from her face and unscrewed the top, reaching in to withdraw a…

"What is that?"

"It's ice-cream!" Tenten chirped, carefully peeling away the brightly-colored wrapping. "It's a sea-salt flavored ice-cream pop, my favoritest flavor in the world!"

She took a moment to appreciate the sight of the cold treat. A perfectly-shaped taper of pale blue sweetness, mounted on a popsicle-stick, so cold that it was covered in a thin silver coating of ice-crystals. Little streamers of cold-steam rose into the hot summer air.

"Sea-salt?" Neji repeated incredulously. "And why is it blue?"

Tenten paused from her reverent contemplation to glare at Neji. "Do not question the ways of the ice-cream makers, for they are chilly and prone to fits. Then where would the ice-cream lovers of the world be?"

Neji scoffed. "And I suppose…" he began to say, but trailed off, his eyes suddenly bulging.

Tenten had begun to eat her frozen treat by running her tongue all over it, carefully licking away the little silver ice-crystals. When she'd licked off all the ice-crystals, the popsicle was noticeably darker, and shiny with moisture. Warmed just enough so that her mouth wouldn't suffer from freeze-burn, but still delightfully cold, the ice cream was now in the perfect state for Tenten to stick it whole in her mouth and suck gleefully.

"Mmm," she moaned around the ice-cream, loving the taste and the coldness.

Neji was unabashedly staring now, his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open ever so slightly. He snapped his jaw shut so hard there was an audible click of teeth.

Tenten noticed a few pale droplets hitting the back of her left hand - the popsicle was melting from the summer heat. She took the popsicle out of her mouth with a soft but audible 'pop', and licked all around it until the melted sections were cleaned. Idly she raised her left hand to her mouth and licked off the ice-cream droplets.

Neji gulped hard, trying to swallow past the rapidly-beating heart that seemed to have jumped into his throat. He was aware that his mouth was watering so much that if he opened it he might drool all over himself. Nervously he shifted position. Thank all the gods that he was wearing such loose clothing.

Satisfied that the ice-cream would cease dripping on her, Tenten inserted the popsicle back into her mouth. She toyed with the popsicle stick jutting out of her mouth, using it to slip the ice-cream slightly back and forth. She made happy little slurping noises as she enjoyed herself.

Neji heard a sound like a small whine, and it took him a few moments to figure out that he was the source of the noise. He tried to stifle it, but burst into a small whimper when Tenten licked her lips around the ice-cream.

She looked at him curiously. "Neji?"

He bolted to his feet, immediately turning away from her so she was addressing his back. "I…I need to go. Now." Suiting action to word, Hyuuga Neji then raced away from the scene like a spooked rabbit, leaving a confused girl to stare in his wake.

Tenten shrugged. "Hm, whatever."

She then bit the top of her popsicle off.

* * *

**AN**Sea-salt ice-cream pops are, of course, from the awesome game Kingdom Hearts 2. 


	2. Reversal

**Title**: Reversal  
**Pairing: **Neji/Tenten  
**Length: **2127 words  
**Rating: **R, adult material  
**Notes: **It's based on a plotbunny spawned by **burnishedvelvet**'s fic 'Help Believing'. Specifically the line that caught my attention was "_she_ hadn't ever thought to break into _his_ room, push _him_ up against a wall and get him out of _his_ clothes before." So...I wrote a fic wherein TENTEN's the one in the lead.

Same universe as 'Ice Cream'.

* * *

_It was popularly assumed that Neji won every single one of the sparring matches he and Tenten daily engaged in._

_This was a grave underestimation of Tenten. _

_It was true that Neji won MOST of the matches; however, she always gave him a good run for his money, and with her increasingly lethal skill and - more - her cunning for traps and her knowledge of his fighting style, she occasionally pulled off a win. _

_It looked like that was the case now, as Neji found himself pinned to the ground after a lightning-fast combo of strikes that ended with him flat and breathless on his back, Tenten straddling him so that he was altogether completely at her mercy. _

_"Yield..." Neji panted, somehow finding it difficult to breathe as Tenten's face - flushed with exercise, framed by unruly strands of sweat-damp brown that had escaped her loosened hair-bands - peered closely at his own. _

_Her eyes were very bright in the sunset light._

_"I...yield," he panted again, swallowing hard in an effort to funnel sufficient oxygen to his lungs. It seemed a futile endeavor; he was beginning to feel light-headed. As he breathed heavily he discovered he could catch the warm, sweaty, metallic-tainted - and utterly delicious - scent that was Tenten. _

_He licked his lips nervously. Tenten's eyes darted to the quick, flickering movement, and something seemed to darken in them. Neji felt even more light-headed, even more nervous, and every inch of skin where he could feel Tenten's weight felt feverishly hot. _

_He licked his lips again - and suddenly Tenten was kissing him, her mouth on his, and it was her tongue flickering against his lips, and then between them, and then ohgodohGOD..._

_He wasn't sure when she had pulled away, only that he didn't like that she had. She had a kunai in her mouth now, the handle clenched between her teeth, and Neji felt a sudden irrational surge of jealousy for the weapon. Then she was bending her head, and tracing the tip of the kunai - razor-sharp, the way all her weapons were - down the front of his tunic in a single quick slash, and Neji shivered at the feel of the cold steel against his skin, of the cool evening air he was now exposed to, and at her... simply **her**..._

_She was moving her mouth over his jaw now, nipping and sucking slightly, enough to make short hard shivers race up and down Neji's spine at every sensation. He writhed helplessly, noticing vaguely he couldn't move his arms. How had she done that? Chakra strings? Did he care? Not really, no...gods, it was embarassingly HOT to be restrained like this. She was suckling at his collarbone now, making small sounds that sent Neji further reeling. _

_"Neji…"_

_He moaned softly. _

_"Neji…"_

"NEJI!"

Neji woke up.

Although usually he came awake with the quick-snap awareness trained into shinobi, his thought processes were decidedly muddled at the moment. It took him a few seconds to realize that instead of a golden, sunset-soaked meadow, they were in the darkness of his unlit room - and that Tenten was not straddling him but was kneeling beside his futon and shaking his shoulders, was saying his name not in a tone of husky desire but in worry.

"…what?" Neji mumbled sleepily. He rubbed at his eyes; Byakugan, which adjusted faster than normal to changes in light, also were extremely blinded for a little while after a Hyuuga woke up. If their enemies knew this any assaults on Hyuugas would be performed exclusively while they were asleep. Tenten, who was possibly the only non-Hyuuga who knew about this weakness, had already turned this to her advantage half a dozen times.

"Neji," Tenten said very seriously, "You need to take all your clothes off."

Neji's hand dropped from his face, along with what felt like most of his jaw.

"Now."

Neji began to wonder if he was still dreaming, but the pain when Tenten hauled him to his feet and slammed him against the wall seemed to argue otherwise. Neji woke up a little more from the feel of his skull bouncing against his bedroom wall, and his vision focused more closely on Tenten – who, he saw, had withdrawn a large curve-bladed dagger from gods knew where. Deftly, she spun it around once to get the heft right, and then set to work.

When she began to cut his tunic off him he flashbacked very vividly to his dream, and had to bite his lip.

Neji was still in his mission-clothes, instead of the sleeping robes he habitually wore to bed. It was not usual for him to go to sleep in the still sweat-soaked, torn and dirty clothes he had fought in; he valued cleanliness. _However_, it was also not usual for him to have had a two-week-long A-class mission – his first A-class as jounin-in-command – chasing a pack of bandits, mostly ex-samurai with a sprinkling of rogue nin, all over Fire Country. They had run down the last of the bandits, the leader's younger brother, near the Fire Country's capital, and after delivering him there had made all possible speed for the home they had not seen in half a month.

Two weeks of constant vigilance. Two weeks of tracking and deductive work. Two weeks of fights. Two weeks of watching Tenten move in _that way_ she had, which had become increasingly fascinating to Neji as the years had gone by – two weeks of watching her move _while_ in increasingly torn clothing – both from fighting and from her jury-rigging bandages from the material – which exposed growing amounts of her midriff, legs, and upper arms. By the end of the mission she was fighting in pants that had turned into extremely short shorts, and her white top had been completely used up for bandages...she was fighting in a black sports-bra. (Thus distracting a good number of the bandits, as well as her teammate.)

It was very possible he was hallucinating all this. It was therefore all right to just agree with everything that was happening and cheerfully follow orders, Neji decided. It was less hassle – less _troublesome_ – than having to question things.

Tenten regained his attention by literally yanking the pieces of what had been his white tunic off him, and then turning and hurling them with very great force into a corner of his room. By the time she turned back to him, he had skinned out of his pants and boxers and was holding them in one hand. She grabbed them and hurled them with equal vehemence into the same corner, where it landed softly on top of the tunic.

Neji began to shiver. It may have been because he was now completely naked in the middle of a cool night – or it may have been because he was completely naked in the middle of the night _with _Tenten standing a little distance away – _in his room. _

Maybe.

Something in him whined about the lack of balance in the situation. _He_ was naked. It followed that she should return the favor. He began to reach for her, opening his mouth to explain his conclusion, when he realized that Tenten was not looking at him. (Disappointed, he stopped flexing) She was, in fact, still staring at where she had hurled his clothes.

He realized that her fingers were flashing in a series of hand-seals just in time for her to finish in the Tiger seal, raising her hands to her mouth and proclaiming: "_Katon: Goukyakuu no Jutsu!" _as she incinerated his clothes.

Neji's jaw dropped open _again_ as his room was suddenly filled with the orange light of a carefully regulated Grand Fireball. And then there was the tell-tale whoosh of several agitated Hyuuga rushing to his room, and he just managed to grab a sheet from his futon and wrap it – carefully – around his waist before the door slid open.

"What seems to be the matter here?" asked a cool, very controlled voice. Neji felt a dropping sensation in his belly as he saw his uncle at the front of a crowd of nervous Hyuugas.

"Hiashi-sama," Tenten said, bowing respectfully to the clan head. "I apologize for the disturbance, but it was necessary." Her face was smooth and serene, and her eyes confident – Neji realized she was slipping into what Lee and Gai had dubbed 'Researcher Tenten Mode', where she would cheerfully and at great length explain the results of whatever her latest research was. To his mild horror, Hiashi seemed perfectly content to listen.

"Earlier today," Tenten began, "while subduing the last of the bandits we were assigned to capture (you do know of Neji's A-class mission?) the bandit (actually a rogue nin from Kiri, specializing in poisons) splashed Neji with some strange liquid. I initially thought," Hiashi knew she was the explosives and substances expert of Neji's little team, and actually of the four young teams who made up Konoha's new elite, "it was a malfunctioning smoke-bomb, as it smelled very much of the clay used in such objects. However," she bowed her head slightly, "I was mistaken, as I discovered when we were back in Konoha and I was able to consult my textbooks about the scent. It was slightly more astringent than the usual scent, and that discrepancy bothered me enough to look it up."

At this point in the report, Neji was attempting to sidle closer to Tenten, still holding the sheets about his waist. He didn't like the way some of his cousins were looking at her. (Also, she still hadn't said anything to him since getting him _out of his clothes.) _

"After consulting with the _University of Blaise-Conflagration's Index of Hazardous Substances, fourth edition_, I determined that the rogue nin had in fact managed to get essence of _tin'ola_ all over Neji. It is a very rare substance, not so much for the rarity of the plant itself but of the time-consuming process necessary to extract its pure essence." She paused, and Neji could see her visibly debating whether she could indulge herself in a further dissertation on that point. Hiashi and the other Hyuugas stood quietly, intent and listening, and Neji (all too aware of the thin white sheet he was clutching to himself) wondered morbidly if they would actually urge her to continue. He suppressed a sigh of relief when she continued without another conversational detour.

"It kills silently, freezing its victims' trachea and vocal chords before causing the blood vessels in the victim's body to swell and burst. The deaths it caused were known as the Red Death and thought to be a plague in 1532 in Lightning Country until its exact properties were known. Now, _tin'ola_'s one weakness – some might call it strength, considering its use in delayed-reaction assassinations – is that it takes some time to go into effect. What is needed is for the essence to dry into a powdery substance and then be breathed into the victim's respiratory system. It is also highly flammable and is rendered into harmless ash if exposed to hot enough fires," Tenten lectured, gesturing with one hand at the still-blazing bonfire burning in the corner of the room.

"I see," Hiashi said, nodding his head.

"I did not know how close the essence was to powder, so I took action immediately. I apologize for the disturbance it caused, but as you can see…"

Hiashi shook his head. "No apology is necessary. In fact, Clan Hyuuga owes you some thanks for the service you've rendered us tonight. Isn't that right, Neji?" He added, turning perfectly expressionless eyes onto his fidgeting nephew. Neji felt a cold sweat break out on his skin when several other pairs of white eyes – and one pair of dark ones – all followed Hiashi's gaze to rest on him.

"Er. Yes. Thank you, Tenten."

Tenten's eyes widened. Whether it was in surprise from the thanks, or because she had actually realized that her teammate stood half-naked in front of her – she being too focused on the poison on his clothes before to notice, Neji thought resentfully – was up to debate. After tonight's debacle he was unhappily certain that it was _not _the latter.

"Oh yeah," Tenten said, grinning sheepishly. She lifted one hand to scratch at the back of her head, a reflex action she did whenever she was nervous. Neji resisted the urge to melt – and then resisted the urge to Jyuuken the hell out of several other Hyuuga who were smiling at Tenten. "Maybe you'd better go take a bath, Neji? Just to be sure you've got all poison off."

"Right," Neji said, and trudged reluctantly off. What she said made perfect sense. It didn't mean that he had to like it. Especially not with several of his cousins now clustering around Tenten, asking questions about poisons, weapons, and – _how_ did they know about that – fortune-telling and astronomy and Tsunade-sama – questions designed specifically to engage her interest. It looked like it was working.

Neji ground his teeth as he stepped into the shower. Deliberately he twisted the handle all the way over to the cold setting, holding back a yelp as the water turned icy.

Fate hated him.

He began to shiver miserably underneath his cold shower. Dimly the well-beloved sound of Tenten's light laugh floated to his ears, along with the lower rumblings of his cousins' voices.

Fate hated him and was laughing at him too.

* * *

Hee hee hee. 

Neji: (strained voice) You are a very cruel person.


	3. Rider

They're in the dusty desert town of Marrakeesh, far to the east of Suna. Their mission to capture a man who had stirred sedition against the Wind Daimyo is completed, not really a Konoha mission but rather one farmed out to their more-numerous Konoha allies and done as a favor. They had tracked the man here, killed his bodyguards, and then turned him over to the local samurai. Lee is back in Suna, 'liaising' with the Kazekage. They have a week before they have to report back to Konoha.

And so Tenten wants to go shopping.

Of course, being Tenten, her gaze lingered less on clothing and jewelry than on the weapons. Those are what she wants - what she lusts for. Rare weapons, exotic weapons, crafted out of unfamiliar materials, brought from the empires far to the east across an expanse of uninhabitable wasteland, brought by desert caravans who tempt fate and risk lives with every trip.

She marvels at them all - bird's-head axes carved out of tropical hardwoods, slim silver _chakrams _(the name tickles her) to throw, wavy-bladed _kris_ daggers, enormous swords and halberds wielded, the seller assures them, by a race of giants who live among towering mountains. There are cross-barred _katar_, hook swords glittering like crescent moons, whips made of supple snake-skin - _tjaluk _blades she immediately places up her sleeves, cleverly-wrought compound bows of some strangely light material, quivers of arrows fletched with bright feathers - eagle-feathers, swan's-feathers, even some red-gold shimmering ones sworn to be phoenix feathers (the arrows, she discovers, ignite into fireballs), braces and braces of odd-shaped throwing knives.

Neji buys her something - an amber-hafted dagger he had seen Tenten admiring, but which she'd rejected as 'too impractical'. He plans to give her the dagger before they go back to Suna. He also buys her a pair of earrings, amber teardrops swinging from silver filaments, amber and silver so perfectly matched to the dagger he wonders if they are a set.

The jewelry, he plans to give her when he has the courage to confess to her.

He is bending over a sweetseller's table, pondering whether Tenten will laugh at him if he buys them a paper-cone full of sugar-peppers to share, when he hears a wistful sigh from his dark-eyed teammate. The soft sound makes the fine hairs on the back of his neck rise, and he turns to look at her with wide eyes.

She is gazing at him with yearning eyes. "I'd sure like to ride _that,"_ she breathes.

Neji absolutely freezes. What - how - what had ...

He swallows hard, and feels his suddenly-racing heart pound against his ribcage. How does he react? How can he answer? Kiss her? Lead her to his room? Is there a place of reasonable privacy nearby? Should he say something?

_'Thank you'? _

_'Feel free!'? _

_'I'd like that too.'? _

_'Oh gods yes please.'?_

He is opening his mouth, still unsure what to say, stepping towards her, when he hears an imperious whinny behind him. He whirls, sees a tall black stallion prancing impatiently on a golden lead, the animal's fine lines and regal bearing drawing eyes from all over the crowd. Tenten slips past him, begins to stroke the stallion's glossy arched neck while striking up an excited conversation with the proud stable-boy holding the reins. Soon the stallion is nuzzling Tenten like the mildest pony rather than the warhorse it is, and Tenten is feeding it a carrot she snatches from a nearby vegetable-stand.

Neji deflates, forgotten and disappointed, in the background.

* * *

**AN**

_save a horse  
ride a cowboy_

Hehehehhehe.

Should I continue to have Tenten torture him? Or should Neji get some relief?


	4. In Medias Res

a comment on the Nejiten FC about the "saved from the water-bubble-prison" scene sparked this short drabble.

* * *

"Thanks, Neji," Tenten panted, arm slung around his shoulders as she let her inner ear readjust to air and light, regaining her balance after the water-sphere prison. 

"Mmm," Neji murmured in reply, his own arms around her body - to steady her, sure, but who's to say that the press of warm, wet bodies against each other didn't have fringe benefits? Tenten's eyes were on Gai as he flared brilliantly, his chakra flaming like the thousand shimmering eyes of a peacock's tail, and Neji's were, too...

...somewhat.

What most people didn't know was that the Byakugan's advanced vision was not only accessible from activation. Sure, the full 360 degrees and X-ray capabilities needed chakra being pumped to the ocular region in order to activate - but even while inert, his silver eyes granted him better-than-normal peripheral vision and detail-work.

And at this moment, he didn't want the inversed, black-and-white-and-chakra sight of his Byakugan - he wanted color, and detail, and the full photographic impact of drenched white silk clinging to feminine curves, the honey color of flesh subtly visible through the cloth, the fascinating motions of a chest that heaved for breath after the submersion...

In the midst of the battle, Hyuuga Neji with his hard-to-track silver eyes ogled, and leered, and memorized the view for later savoring.

* * *

Kisame: ...what on earth are your students doing? God! All you Konoha-nins are such PERVERTS. 

Gai: (glances back) ...Neji, Tenten, I THOUGHT WE TALKED ABOUT THIS.


	5. By the Bay

Team Gai had done so well on their recent B-class mission that their grateful client had not only thanked them profusely, but had actually given thanks in more material form - he'd offered Team Gai an all-expenses paid vacation at a tropical island resort he owned, and simply would not take no for an answer. Team Gai, after checking in with their Hokage via messenger-hawk, took the offered vacation gladly.

And they were all happy to go. Lee and Gai had often gone on training trips to the shore, using crashing waves and the resistance sand and/or rocky ground offered to help them in their never-ending quest for improvement. They had once spent three whole days seated on a rocky spar, letting waves crash over them as they sought enlightenment and insight into life and taijutsu (which was, for them, the same thing nearly). Their skin had dried out and gotten sunburned, and their brows turned white with salt, and Lee caught a cold, but they emerged from the experience happier and more at peace with the world than ever before. They _liked _beaches.

Tenten was happy to go because she wanted a vacation, pure and simple. Team Gai was one of those teams that often fell victim to its own success - they'd been out on successive missions, all high-ranked, for almost a month and a half straight, and this would be their first chance in even longer to truly decompress. Plus, their nice, grateful, rather sweet client (he reminded Tenten vaguely of a great-uncle) was footing the bill. She fully intended to spoil herself as much as possible.

(Because if she didn't, who would?)

And, surprising everyone, Neji agreed to go without even requiring any arguments. (Lee sadly packed away the five page flowchart he had labored over the entire night specifically to talk Neji into accompanying them).

Neji hated beaches. He disliked sand ("No other sort of ground is as annoying as sand, except maybe quicksand.") and he disliked the way sand got everywhere. He disliked saltwater (it made his Byakugan eyes burn with pain). He disliked the tiny creatures that lived in beaches and the allergic reactions he had to most of them, he disliked the way sun glaring off water and sand irritated his sensitive eyes, he disliked the way he was nearly guaranteed a sunburn.

But he had said yes. More than that, he had said yes _cheerfully_. His team was shocked but pleased, and immediately set out for Bora Bay lest Neji regain his senses and then refuse to go.

They might have rested easier had they known Neji had a good reason to agree and that he wasn't _at all_ planning to withdraw his support from the planned beach-trip. They might have, but how Neji could inform them that he had overheard Tenten inquiring if they stocked bathing suits at the resort, and that it was really the thought of Tenten in a bikini that was changing his mind?

He couldn't. So he kept quiet, and daydreamed a little as they traveled to Bora Bay.

* * *

Like Neji, I generally hate the beach

Unlike me, Neji has a reason that compensates him for the myriad annoyances.

These drabbles have been getting shorter lately, huh? I have plans for a longer one in my head, but plan on updating a few other series first. Anyway, some other short beach-drabbles may follow.


	6. By the Bay 2

The thing with Tenten, Neji now found himself thinking in the very back of his mind (the front bits were engaged in other things) was that for her, weapons were not items, or anything so non-dynamic. For her, weapons were a _philosophy_, and she saw the world in 'possibilities of usage to maim/destroy/batter/slash' ways that others did not. People saw a stick - she saw a bludgeon or the staff for a pole-arm. People saw a table, she saw at least seven different weapons waiting to be pulled out of the 'raw material'. Tenten, he realized, took things and _made them _weapons.

And so, he wondered, why hadn't he realized that her swimsuit would be similarly deadly?

It was white. Neji, a Hyuuga, had a noted predilection for the color. (Or, more technically speaking, lectured a voice in his head quite like his pedantic teammate, white which was no one color at all, but the amalgamation of colors and oh god he had VOICES IN HIS HEAD that sounded like her!)

For soft white material stretched over his teammate's fascinating curves, hugging her skin-tight, the color making such a wonderful contrast against skin turned bronzed by the sun - Neji's brain _melted_.

It was so - brief. So tiny. It covered up so little, and one would think that a Hyuuga with x-ray vision wouldn't be so affected. But the truth was he had been trained never to use his powers in _that way_, and he never had, and now of course he was going to be training to obtain the necessary control so he could refine his vision enough for - wait, no he wasn't! He wasn't a pervert! But then his eyes traced up and down more of Tenten's figure than had ever been on display for his benefit (no, wait, she wasn't doing this _for him) _and he realized rather morbidly that yes, yes he was a pervert.

He wondered if it would turn transparent in the sea, like her white top (he had loved that white top) had in their fight against Kisame...

Yes, he was a pervert, it was verified. He wondered idly if Kakashi-sensei ran a club for them.

All these thoughts yammered in the back of his mind, while most of it was busily and happily engaged in forever preserving the image of Tenten emerging from the beach-house in that white bikini. He took stock of the most minute details, filing them away in his mind like a man hoarding precious jewels. Brown hair still up in those adorable buns, gleaming a hundred different autumnal shades in the white tropical sun - long graceful neck as she craned her head back to admire the blue sky (he wondered how the skin there would feel - taste...) - slender shoulders bared - flat stomach, soft indents of abdominal muscles visible underneath the unbelievably perfect (especially for this particular pale Hyuuga, who burned so easy in the sun) tanned skin - and -- his mind screeched to a halt.

"Tenten," Lee asked for him, and he almost gave his teammate a grateful look. And then he realized that if Lee had noticed at the same time as him, it meant Lee had been looking just as hard and just as intently...

"Tenten, why do you have a weapons holster on?"

Tenten pouted, and Neji was jolted out of his murderous thoughts by an internal squealing (and he was very disturbed by it) of how cutely that expression sat on her face.

"I just - I just want to be prep..." She sighed as she saw the non-believing looks on her teammates' faces. They knew her too well to be fooled by a flip explanation.

"Fine. It's just - after all these years, I - I sort of feel naked without a weapon on," she confessed, hoping that it would satisfy them. "Can we go now?"

Unfortunately the two boys were too busy reeling from the mental images her words had conjured up to respond.

* * *

**AN**

annnnd I'm back in Vancouver baby! And actually, contrary to my thoughts, spent some nice time on a beach. Specifically Garry Point in Steveston. HUH. So my friends dragged me there.

Next drabble will be the last beach one, promise.


	7. By the Bay 3

Neji went for a walk, ostensibly to get away from Lee and Gai and their Volleyball Game of Life, _really_ to look for Tenten. She'd gone off early that day, even before he'd woken, leaving only a note taped to the door-frame for her teammates. (_Gone to the beach, see you later. -Tenten_, with that little dragon, half-stick figure and half-icon, that she absent-mindedly scribbled on all sorts of surfaces if she was left alone)

He'd been unexpectedly miffed by this, and had resolved - childishly, he now recognized - to avoid her as she had avoided him. Yet within a rather short time, he'd been driven to seek her out. He was slowly realizing, as he trotted down the white-sand beach, and his Byakugan strained to find Tenten's now familiar chakra system, that he had grown rather...dependent on her company. He had, he thought, slightly wistfully, grown accustomed to the sight of her face...

His eyes caught the sliding blue light that was Tenten's chakra, and he perked up (though he would have glared evilly at anyone who applied that term to him). He picked up his pace, adjusting his gait for the soft sand underfoot, and began to hurry to her.

"Tenten," he called out. "Tenten...!" He paused.

Tenten was sitting on a rattan lounge, surrounded by a complex latticework of floating mirrors. He blinked, then blinked again, his eyes growing wide in his reddened face.

(Her skin was _glowing_.)

"Neji?" Tenten said, looking up and then waving. "Heya!"

(Her legs went on forever and _ever. _One was curled up to her chest, and she was smoothing suntan oil on it. He wished he had a camera - or, for the first time ever, he wished that he had the Sharingan and its ability to forever store every visual detail of a moment.)

"What's all this?" he asked, nodding towards the floating mirrors. His voice squeaked a little at the end and he hurriedly began to clear his throat.

Tenten gave him an odd look, but seemed to dismiss it. "Oh. I just rigged up a little something so I tan better," she explained, and twitched her fingers. The mirrors subtly moved, and there was a quiet shimmering - Neji realized the mirrors were held up and connected by a glowing web of chakra strings, so thin as to be nearly invisible even to his Byakugan.

(She was wearing _that bikini._ Neji's mind segued, for a moment, into a fantasy-world where she always wore that bikini. Training would be so ...fulfilling.)

Neji cocked his head to the side, pretending to examine her mirror-net but really taking the chance to look over her bikini-clad body. He was a moment late in providing a reply that had any sort of intelligence to it.

"...you're directing light under the chair."

"Under the _lounger_, Neji, the lounger. And yeah. This way I can tan on both sides at once!" Tenten chirped brightly, proud of herself. Neji's lips quirked into something like a smile - leave it to Tenten to search for efficiency even in sunbathing.

And then his smile dropped, as Tenten lay down on the lounge, stretched as lithe as a cat, and gave him a pleading look.

"Neji..."

Neji feared, really feared, for a moment, that he was drooling.

"Can you help me put suntan oil on my back?"

Half of Neji - more than half - exploded into raucous cheering and urged him to offer to 'help' to put it on more than just her back. The other part of him told him to flee - flee at once - before Tenten realized the drooling pervert waiting to be unleashed underneath Neji's surface gentleman.

He swallowed hard. "O- of course."

She smiled at him, and handed him the bottle of suntan oil. He swallowed hard again, knelt beside her chair, and set to -- work.

* * *

Somehow, rubbing oil onto a relatively small surface area (of soft, tanned skin) had taken much longer than Neji thought it would. Perhaps it was some sort of time dilation. Maybe the oil had psychotropic properties. It was only when Tenten began to _purr_ that he came back to himself.

His hands were flat on her back, slick with oil and he could feel the heat from her sun-warmed skin. He had also - he realized - gone from kneeling beside her to practically straddling her hips. Her back was glossy with the oil, and he'd spread quite a bit more than enough - he was no longer applying, he realized, but actively massaging her, his hands kneading and pressing into the fascinating curve of her spine that he'd wondered about for so long.

She was enjoying it. He was enjoying it.

And that scared him more than anything else.

Abruptly he swung off her, reeling mentally. He opened his mouth to say something - anything - to her, but the disappointed, puzzled look on her face as she looked at him stole his breath and words. He turned on his heel and - ran away.

* * *

Tenten sat up, blinked, and watched him go... and then a slow, wicked smile spread across her face.


End file.
